Someone just paid £24k to play football against Ed Balls

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Lynsey Barber

An unknown bidder will play football with Ed Balls (Source: Getty)

A bidder at last night’s Labour party fundraiser paid £24,000 to play two games of football against the shadow chancellor.

The unknown bidder paid well above the asking price of £2,500, offering £13,000 for a single game and raising the bid to £24,000 when Balls offered to play a second match.

It's still a long way off the price reached for a game of tennis with David Cameron and Boris Johnson, which sold for £160,000 at the Conservatives' fundraiser last week.

The winner will also play Jim Murphy, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham in the “Labour Five-A-side All Stars”.

The football game was auctioned at the Labour Party’s election gala dinner along with a raft of other lots designed to raise money for the party ahead of the election. The auction included artwork and a voicemail message from Sir Patrick Stewart, according to the auction guide brochure revealed exclusively by City A.M.

A sculpture by Anthony Gormley went for £105,000, £5,000 more than the asking price, the FT reports.

Grayson Perry’s “Labour Lion” statue is said to have gone for £42,000, almost three times the reserve price.

Other artworks by Mark Wallinger, Nicola Green and Sir Anish are said to have fetched £12,000, £12,000 and £36,000 respectively.

The event at Camden’s Roundhouse was attended by stars such as Stephen Fry, Eddie Izzard and Sir Patrick Stewart, whose voicemail message recording is said to have gone for more than the £1,000 reserve.